An increasing number of computing services are being made available over networks such as the Internet, and an increasing number of enterprises (such as businesses, universities, research institutions, governmental departments, and the like) are turning to technologies, such as network-based computing services, also referred to as web services, to meet their computing requirements. In such environments, the hardware and software used to provide access to data and applications are typically scalable to meet the needs of various users at any given time. A subscriber to a web service typically rents, leases, or otherwise pays for access to needed computing resources, and thus does not have to purchase and maintain, on-premises, the computing hardware and software to gain access to these resources.
An advantage to using a network-based computing service is that users can quickly reconfigure their available computing resources in response to the changing demands of the enterprise. Subscribers to network-based computing services receive great flexibility to alter the configuration of their computing environments. Additionally, network-based computing service resources can change automatically and frequently, based on usage, traffic or other operational or business needs of the web service provider. This dynamic nature of network-based computing services, in contrast to a relatively static infrastructure of on-premises computing environments, presents a challenge for web service users to monitor, manage, secure, and control their enterprises' computing environments.